It’s super early this Wednesday morning as I wanted to write this email before I left for gentle yoga at 6:30am.

Yup, I’m still at Kripalu and what a totally fun day it was teaching my week long animal communication class! The students finally got to do their first connections with animals. Woo hoo!

We spent a day and a half preparing for this moment – and it looked like it really paid off. From the start people were receiving and sharing wonderful bits and pieces of intuitive info the animals had given them.

Of course, there were the normal first time jitters. The act of doing animal communication can bring out the skeptic in all of us.

Can you trust what you’re getting?

Is this real or is Danielle just making things fit?

But, I never worry about those thoughts because I know that as the students practice and grow, the belief follows.

What I think people were really surprised about though was how the way they are in their normal, daily lives was reflected back to them in their intuitive world with the animals.

So, let’s talk about Octavio.

He’s one of my students here and he’s adorable! I love his cheery laugh, I love how he expresses his concerns, I love how he’s always working to be genuine with himself, and he’s always smiling.

But he’s someone who has a bit of a challenge imposing his own needs/desires/wants on others. He definitely doesn’t like to be the center of attention.

So, here’s what happened. (Yes – he gave me permission to share. Thank you Octavio and good morning!)

We were connecting with a dog and Octavio got a little stuck. The dog that he wanted to connect with busted into the intuitive space in Octavio’s head (I call it the White Room), but was running all over the place, not giving Octavio that time of day.

Normally, the White Room is a super serene, peaceful, connected place. Not so much this time for Octavio though.

Octavio tried to get the dogs attention. He leaned forward and said, “Uh… excuse me?” and “Dog, will you talk to me?” and “Hello?” but the dog kept running around the white room wanting to play so Octavio never really got a chance to create an intuitive heart-to-heart connection with this dog.

And THIS is where animals prove that they are always helping us learn, grow, and overcome behaviors and beliefs that are holding us back.

Remember how I said that Octavio has a challenge being the center of attention? Well, the same thing was happening here in the White Room! Saying, “Uh… excuse me” is not going to catch the eye of an overly excited dog, right?

So, what is the key for Octavio in today’s upcoming communications? If it to step up his energy and try out being little bit more of a leader.

How will he do this? He’s going to use the Wicked Cool Tool Wednesday tool!

I call this the Construction Worker tool and it’s a way to help people who have trouble standing up for themselves, speak up for themselves, command attention, and feel their inner power.

It’s super simple. And… a little… well… you’ll see.

Imagine a group of construction workers, men and women, on their job site, doing their work.

Notice that each person knows what their job is and walks from place to place with an air of confidence. Well, with the construction worker tool – you’re going to do the same thing.

Perhaps you imagine yourself walking with a tool belt on – going to weld something, or nail something…

Perhaps you imagine yourself securely walking across a beam suspended above the ground

Perhaps you imagine yourself yelling across the work site to your friend who grabbed your tool by accident.

Whatever it is you imagine, it’s coming from a place of confidence, because you know your job.

Now, stand up (in real life – not your imagination) and really picture yourself as this construction worker.

Walk across the room with purpose – you’ve got to get that piece of machinery working – and you’re going to fix it with YOUR hands…

Notice that as you do this, you feel stronger, more powerful. It’s less about who notices what you do and more about getting things done. You’re in the power. You’re in control.

THIS is the energy that I’ll be asking Octavio to embody this morning and when he does this, the animals are going to respond. They’ll love his security, his power, and his confidence – and they’ll buddy right up to him.

And when he does that, he’s also learning the skills he needs to start standing up for himself in his regular life – all because of the animals.